AYINET to Suspend Further Screenings of Kony 2012

The first public screening of
Invisible Children’s video Kony 2012 in northern Uganda
took place in Lira Town on 13 March 2012. It was organized
by AYINET (the African Youth Initiative Network) a Ugandan
NGO that works in support of the victims of the LRA war. The
screening was attended by over 35,000 people from across
northern Uganda; it was broadcast live on five local FM
radio stations that reach approximately 2 million people in
northern Uganda.

Because most victims have no access to
internet, electricity, and television, AYINET had intended
to screen the film KONY 2012 throughout remote locations of
northern Uganda so that victims and their communities could
see and comment on the film that so many people around the
world are talking about. However, at the Lira screening, the
film produced such outrage, anger and hurt that AYINET has
decided that in order not to further harm victims or provoke
any violent response that it is better to halt any further
screenings for now.

What follows is an overview of some of
the dominant reactions by viewers during the Lira screening.
While people clearly voiced the opinion that Kony, the top
LRA commanders and those most responsible for the harms
people suffered should be brought to justice and that
international support was needed, the film’s overall
messages were very upsetting to many audience members.

In
particular, viewers were outraged by the KONY 2012
campaign’s strategy to make Kony famous and their
marketing of items with his image. One victim was applauded
upon saying, “If you care for us the victims, you will
respect our feelings and acknowledge how hurting it is for
us to see you mobilizing the world to make Kony famous, the
guy who is the world most wanted criminal.” It was very
hurtful for victims and their families to see posters,
bracelets and t-shirts, all looking like a slick marketing
campaign, promoting the person most responsible for their
shattered lives. One young man who lost four brothers and
one of his arms said afterwards: “How can anybody expect a
person to wear a T-shirt with Kony’s name on it?"

Many
people were asking: “Why give such criminals celebrity
status? Why not make the plight of the victims and the
war-ravaged communities, people whose sufferings are real
and visible, the focus of a campaign to help?"

There was a
strong sense from the audience that the video was
insensitive to African and Ugandan audiences, and that it
did not accurately portray the conflict or the victims.
Watching the film was upsetting for many audience members,
and a group of viewers nodded their heads in affirmation
when one viewer said, “This was very painful to watch, it
brings back to me many bad memories and that is not
good."

Viewers also spoke about their hopes that their
abducted and disappeared loved ones from the war will return
to them. They also called for the protection of their fellow
Africans in those areas now being subjected to the kind of
LRA atrocities and terror that was visited upon northern
Uganda in the past.

The video has succeeded in triggering
worldwide awareness of LRA brutality. Let us hope that that
this heightened awareness can be built upon to find real
solutions to the conflict and to address the suffering of
the tens-of-thousands of victims affected by this war in the
region.

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